Sierra Wireless celebrates its 50 millionth wireless module

Sierra Wireless powers more connected devices than any other module vendor worldwide

Vancouver, Canada - In the fourth quarter of 2010, Sierra Wireless shipped its 50 millionth embedded wireless module. The milestone delivery rounded off an excellent year for the Sierra Wireless module business, with a number of new product introductions and a series of major customer wins. In 2010, Sierra Wireless became the world’s number one wireless module vendor, with a 33% market share in the first half of the year (source: iSuppli).

The 50 millionth module shipment is the result of more than a decade of continuous innovation. The world’s first cellular wireless module, WISMO1A, saw the day of light in January 1997. It was a dual-sided 40 x 64 mm device operating on the 900 MHz GSM band only. It ran on an ARM6 processor, and attained peak data speeds of 9.6 Kbps. At the time, it was an impressive industrial achievement – but the span is wide to the feature sets of today’s Sierra Wireless modules, which include air interfaces up to LTE, GPS support, embedded SIM, application processing capabilities, and remote device management, to mention but a few.

Philippe Guillemette, Chief Technology Officer of Sierra Wireless, was part of the engineering team that created the first wireless module 14 years ago. He comments: “The concept of the wireless module, which integrates all the technology needed to communicate via cellular networks into a single device, made mobile communications technology available to a host of new players. Manufacturers and system integrators no longer needed to be wireless experts in order to incorporate cellular connectivity in their products and solutions. This spurred an explosion of innovation which I don’t think anyone could have foreseen – and the benefits are countless, from improved business processes to energy efficiency and even the ability to save lives"

Sierra Wireless would like to thank all the pioneering customers who have seen so many potential uses for wireless communications technology and have helped us reach this tremendous milestone!